Many people realize nowadays that being on the internet is a very public place. Most people however do not know just how public it is. The fact is that if you like many others on the Internet do not take steps to make yourself less exposed on the Internet, it is very easy for someone with a little bit of knowledge to see what you’re doing online, where you’re at, and in some cases who you are. While your everyday Joe does not possess this knowledge there are many people out there that either know how to find this information out, or know someone that does. At any rate it is a good practice to make this information as difficult to come by as possible.

The first major step in the right direction is, if you use Internet Explorer, make sure to set your browser to delete all after each browsing session. Yes, delete your history, cookies, passwords, page form data, etc….I know it is really convenient to have all this available at the click of your mouse but with that convenience comes risk.

The next step, use the “In-Private” browsing function. This function is designed to make your browsing more private…

The third step, if you really need to be private, use a proxy to browse the web. While you need to be careful and know that the server you are using to browse through is legitimate, with the proper configuration it becomes more difficult to track back your browsing to you specifically.

The last step you can take is to use a program like Tor. Tor allows you to use encrypted connections to make your browsing more secure. Tor also offers the proxy service talked about above.

All in all it is very important that you protect your online activities. Not only to protect you from the onslaught of advertisements you can get from browsers using your cookies, but, also to keep you protected from privacy invasion and the possibility of identity theft.

To read more click here.

 

 

HouseCall is made by Trend Micro, this program will help you to identify and remove viruses, Trojans, worms, unwanted browser plug-ins and other malware detected on your system.  You have the option to perform a quick scan, full system scan, or a custom scan.

This Program is free to download and is a portable application so it makes as a great tool to add to your thumb drive if you are an IT Professional. You can download 32 bit and 64 bit versions and it works on most Windows Operating systems including Vista and 7.

 

There are alot of great Anti-Virus programs out there that help to keep your computer safe from viruses, but what happens when it just isn't enough and your computer is now infected with tons of Trojans and you can't use it. Well thats when you would use a Rescue CD, and the free AVG Rescue CD would be your best bet. The AVG Rescue CD comes as an ISO Image that can be burned to a disc or you can download a compressed version that can be installed on to a bootable flash drive. Then you would boot the computer from the CD or Flash Drive, which ever you prefer.

Once you decide on how you want to boot the program up you will see a menu like the one I have below, from here you can simply scan for viruses, edit files, and even edit the registry.

The AVG Rescue CD is free to download directly from AVG's website at http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd#tba1. This is a great tool for any IT Professional and something you should add to your tool kit. If you have any problems installing the AVG Rescue CD you can find a complete walk through on AVG's website. They even have video tutorials to walk you through the whole process.

Spyware removal tool SUPERAntiSpyware has released a portable version of their application, and, just like the installed version, it easily removes most infections on your computer.

When you go to download the application you will notice the funny filename… SAS234543.com . The file name will have SAS and then some random characters. This is because many infections while stop you from running known AV’s or even exe files to prevent you from removing the infection. Then by clicking on it you still have the ability to update it to make sure the application is up to date so no need to keep downloading a new copy everyday just to keep updated.

SUPERAntiSpyware Portable is a free download for Windows users.

 

Windows operating system has a utility called system restore that allows you to restore your computer to a previous day and time.

The only thing most users do not know, in the event that your system becomes infected, chances are the system restore files are infected as well. The latest malware infections that claim that your system is vunerable, and you must protect it, can be hidden on your system for an extended period of time. To just restore the system to an earlier day and time will not remove the infection. It will more times then not be restored along with all the other files. Your best bet is to have a Tech Expert remove the infection.

When will it stop.

It seems that the rouge antivirus programs have been finding their way everywhere. I have seen infections before, but this one keeps on making itself known, over and over again. I can not stress the importance of watching every window that pops up and be careful. The malware that can infect you happens so quick, you have to pay attention, and realize what they are trying to do. They are trying to infect your system. It is like a bad practical joke. I just wonder... when will it stop. 

Wondering what I mean by rooted. Techies have found a way to hack the firmware on a new Motorola droid phone by google.This will maybe in the future unlock a ton of features for cell droid users. This could lead to custom themes, full bluetooth file transfer and even lots of hidden features in the phone for more advanced users. One of the nice features it could unlock is mult touch browsing.

Well this is getting out of hand.

You think the box that just popped up is asking you to protect your computer. It says you could be at risk. You will be if you click.

The box that just opened may look legit, but it is not. The fake antivirus programs change so fast it is hard to keep up with them.

I just had one try to infect my system during a download of a driver I needed. We all have to watch and be carefuel not to click to fast. Because the program you think may be trying to keep you safe, is in fact the virus itself.

I was watching the 6 o'clock local news, and they had a warning for all computer users to watch for a new virus.

They went on to describe a type of virus that has been out there for sometime now.

These viruses parade themselves as legit programs that are trying to protect you from infections. But please be aware, these programs that claim they can help, are in the business of trying to get you to send them money. Antivirus 2009 is just one of many fake programs out there that claim they can help you get rid of a virus you never had... until you download them. So pay attention, and as always, if you did not ask for it....

 

If you have nothing to do and you are interested in finding something to do then take a look at Goby. Goby is a search engine that can search for things to do around your area. For instance type in roller skating and it will show you every skating rink around your area. You can get the results by distance, date or even the title of the activity. Do not believe me then get it a try yourself. http://www.goby.com/

Everyone loves the social aspect of networking sites like Facebook.

 But be aware, a new security hole has been discovered with cross-site scripting vulnerabilities involving Facebook applications.

 The new security flaw is a type that might be used to distribute Trojan horse malware or launch various, similar hacking attacks.

Now various Internet security experts have turned their attention to the social networking site, discovering a new series of flaws in the Facebook applications.  A variety of attacks are still possible, including uploading PHP shells, redirects or infecting Web pages with "Trojan droppers". So please be careful… and remember if you did not ask for it, close the window and move along 

In the last 48-72 hours, we have had several clients report problems sending e-mail to several large e-mail providers, such as Yahoo, Hotmail, SBC, Prodigy, Earthlink, etc.

 

We have spent a considerable amount of time investigating the issue and would like to let you know what we've done, what we've found, and what the expected resolution will be.

 

First off: This is not a problem with Tech Experts or our e-mail systems. It is a problem with the services that you are attempting to send mail to.

 

In order to better understand the problem, it is helpful to know a little bit about how mail servers fight spam.

 

One of the ways to fight spam is to use something called a realtime blocking list, or RBL for short. There are dozens of companies that provide RBL services to companies like us (and Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) to help us make smart decisions about e-mail coming into our servers. Some of these RBL services are free, and others we pay to access.

 

Basically, these RBL services tell us whether or not an e-mail or IP address is a known spam source. They're generally very reliable, and in the average day, RBLs help us block around 10,000-20,000 junk e-mails.

 

About two years ago, there was an RBL service called ORDB. It went out of business in December of 2006.

 

Unfortunately, many different large e-mail companies, again such as Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. never took that system out of their servers, and were still trying to get data from the system. This resulted in huge amounts of Internet traffic to ORDB that was pointless because ORDB was no long offering the service.

 

At noon on Tuesday, March 25, the people that ran the ORDB servers turned the servers back on, and basically started saying EVERYTHING was spam. They set up their old systems to return these false positives as a way to get all of these companies that were using their service before, and never disabled it, to stop trying to use them.

 

The net effect: all mail is blocked on servers still configured to use the ORDB service, which was taken out of commission in December of 2006.

 

In addition it appears that the configurations of some major anti-spam services, such as Symantec Brightmail, are also still misconfigured. We know for a fact that the servers at Detroit Edison (dteenergy.com) are also blocking e-mails.

 

If you're interested in the more technical details of this problem, check out this link:

 

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/25/2124224

 

So, to summarize: Slowly the large companies out there are fixing their systems, and eventually, these problems will go away. Rest assured, we have opened tickets with the large companies, and are working on the manual removal process with them. It takes time, and in the end, it will get fixed by these larger companies correcting their entries.

 

We know it is frustrating and that you just want your e-mail to be delivered, and we understand that. We're doing everything that we can to get this resolved. The point of this e-mail is to let you know, definitively, that this is *not* a problem with our e-mail service, but with the servers you are sending mail to.

 

If you have any questions, or would like to provide some specific examples of problems you're having that you think we should know about, please send an e-mail to support@expertsmi.com.

 

Thanks for your continued business, we appreciate it!